The common cemetery vandal topples tombstones, but recent thefts of heavy granite vases at New Saint Joseph Cemetery in Winsted are "bizarre", in the words of one memorial salesman.
"It doesn't seem as if there's a market for them beyond their purpose," said John Ciesco, of Ciesco Memorial in Torrington.
People who tend graves in the cemetery use the vases as planters. Some of the stolen vases have decorative inscriptions. Some of the stolen vases weigh up to two hundred pounds, said Ciesco.
"And you'd have to pry them off," he said. "Some of the older ones might have been put together with a rod."
His company's been in business since 1979 and it sold some of the stolen vases. One lost pair had been in the cemetery for 60 years, he said.
"It's a sad commentary on where we've come to as a society when people would stoop to that level. It's really a disgrace," Ciesco said.
